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UBC suffered a heartbreaking defeat in the Canada West Men’s Soccer final to the Mount Royal University Cougars, with Cougars forward Chanan Chanda scoring a last-gasp winner in stoppage time.

Completing their journey back to success after losing in the tournament’s opening game, L’Université Laval Rouge et Or dominated their in-conference rivals, the University of Ottawa’s Gee-Gees by a score of 40 –14. This was the consolation final for the U Sports Women’s Rugby Championship — the first match of the final day of competition at Thunderbird Stadium — with fifth place on the line.

In a spectacular team performance, the Canada’s National Women’s Rugby Team upset the New Zealand Black Ferns with a 34–19 victory. This talented team — likely the best ever assembled in Canada — was made up of the best rugby players in Canada, from coast-to-coast. Among those players were two Thunderbirds.

Redeeming themselves after a heart-breaking semifinal loss to UBC, the Queens University Gaels became the third best women’s rugby team in the country after another nail-biting match to win bronze over their in-conference rival, the University of Guelph Gryphons, 28–26.

The Thunderbirds had less than one minute left to salvage their season. Hundreds of people in the crowd — UBC and Victoria Vikes fans alike — stood up, knowing that whatever happened, one of the two teams would be bringing home the trophy seconds later. With no time left, Adia Pye found space down the sideline. She outran the Vikes defence and dove into the try zone for a game-winning score. Thunderbird Stadium erupted. What felt impossible had happened.

Coming across the country from Ontario, the Gryphons didn’t seem to have any response for Victoria’s rainy day dominance. Guelph got down early, and they stayed down. The Gryphons were held without a single point against the Vikes, losing 42–0, the only team in the tournament to not score in a game.

To open their post-season run, UBC women’s soccer battled with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies in the Canada West quarterfinals, fighting their way to a spot in the next round with a 1–0 win last Saturday night at Thunderbird Stadium.

L’Université Laval Rouge et Or extended their stay at the U Sports Women’s Rugby Championship with an impressive offensive showing over the Acadia University Axewomen. They walked away with the 41–7 win on Friday in their consolation semifinal match, moving on to face Ottawa in the consolation final.

In a dominating showing on both sides of the ball, the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees beat the Saint Francis Xavier University X-Women (STFX) 55–3 on Friday at Thunderbird Stadium. Although it was not a game for glory — Ottawa put on quite a show. With their high-scoring play and impressive offensive push — they extended their season as the eighth seed, sending the fourth-seeded X-Women home.

For the hundreds of T-Birds fans in attendance, their hearts were in their throats. While UBC women’s rugby had played an incredible game thus far against the second-seeded Queens University Gaels, holding on to a slim 20–14 lead in the final minutes of the game — their backs were against the wall. With the Gaels on the goal line, UBC made an improbable last-second stop to go to the finals.

With an early 5–0 lead, the Acadia Axewomen might have allowed themselves to dream of one of the biggest upsets in this tournament’s history. For three minutes, at least. After facing that initial setback, the Queens Gaels stomped the Axewomen, outscoring them 57–0 in the second half.

For the vast majority of the game, the matchup between the St. Francis Xavier University (STFX) X-Women and the University of Guelph Gryphons went as you might expect for a bout between two similarly-ranked teams. Yet, what blew this game wide open was a spectacular stretch in the first half for Guelph, taking advantage of a yellow card called on STFX, and, including the penalty try that was conceded as a result of the card, scoring 19 points in the 10 minutes that the X-Women were short-handed.

After waiting all day to see the home team play, the crowd at Thunderbird Stadium was rewarded for their patience, watching the sixth-seeded UBC Women’s Rugby team pull off an upset against the third-seeded RSEQ champion L’Université Laval Rouge et Or at the U Sports Women’s Rugby Championship. On a day where the first two seeds in the tournament were dominant, with Victoria winning by 33 and Queens by 80, the ‘Birds broke the trend, making Laval the highest seed in the tournament to lose thus far, defeating the Rouge et Or 32-10.

Going into the second half in the first game of the U Sports Women’s Rugby championship, barely even an hour into the tournament, it seemed like there could be a major upset brewing. The No. 1 seed — the University of Victoria Vikes — were within striking distance, up only six. After the break, however, Victoria was a different team, going on an offensive tear, a 27–0 run in the second half.

After UBC Men’s soccer and the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) Cascades had played through two halves and nearly two periods of extra time without breaking a scoreless tie, penalties seemed inevitable. Yet, almost exactly five minutes after stoppage time had been announced, the impossible happened.